42 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



General Staff Survey (1859-61); and Kohl in his history of the 

 Gulf Stream (Bremen, 1868). Among those who have specially 

 dealt with the botanical side of the subject in recent years are Lindman 

 (1883); Hemsley (1885) ; and Sernander (1901). The years named 

 refer to the date of the publication concerned, usually the earliest 

 when there is more than one (pp. 20-23). 



3. Reference is then made to the popular names in Europe of the 

 West Indian drift seeds and to the superstitions connected with 

 them. One of the earliest designations was " Molucca Beans, 5 ' a 

 name applied in Scotland and in the neighbouring islands (pp. 23-25). 



4. A list is given of the twelve characteristic West Indian seeds 

 and fruits that have been recorded, as far as is known to the writer, 

 from European beaches and from the Azores, the localities being 

 tabulated (pp. 26, 27). The plants supplying them are in half the 

 cases leguminous. Those most frequently represented are Entada 

 scandens, Mucuna urens, and Guilandina bonducella. Amongst the 

 most interesting are Sacoglottis amazonica and Ipomcea tuberosa 

 (pp. 26, 27.) 



5. The records of West Indian drift seeds and fruits on the eastern 

 side of the North Atlantic, as far as they are known to the writer, 

 are then described under the headings of localities : the south-west 

 of England (p. 28); the south coast of Wales (p. 30); the west 

 coast of Ireland (p. 30) ; the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides 

 (p. 31); the Orkney Islands (p. 32); the Shetland Islands (p. 34); 

 the Faroe Islands (p. 34) ; Iceland and Greenland (p. 35) ; the Scan- 

 dinavian coasts (p. 35), mention being made of the doubling of 

 the North Cape by seeds of Entada scandens (p. 36); the Azores, 

 four of the six kinds of seeds and fruits found here being recorded 

 from European beaches (p. 37); the Canary Islands and Madeira, 

 reference being made to the fact that although the writer has not 

 come upon any record of the occurrence of West Indian drift on these 

 islands the indications of bottle-drift point to its probability (p. 38). 



6. The risks of premature generalisations on the dispersal of seeds 

 by the great ocean currents are then dwelt on, and a particular 

 instance is given. Since the seed itself can tell us little of its track, 

 the necessity is urged of looking elsewhere for evidence of the modes 

 of the working of the currents in transporting drift, and the writer 

 accordingly appeals to the evidence supplied by bottle-drift, a subject 

 to which the following chapter is devoted (pp. 39, 40). 



7. The chapter concludes with remarks on the transport of logs 

 of mahogany to the coasts of Greenland, Iceland, and North-west 

 Europe, and on the stranding of living turtles on the shores of the 

 Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands (pp. 40, 41). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Batjhin, C, Pinax Theatri Botanici, 1623. (He quotes on p. 405 the work of 

 Clusius (see below) as regards a drift seed since identified as belonging to 

 Ipomcea tuberosa.) 



Baxjhin, J., Historia Plantarum, 1650. (Quoted by Sir D. Morris in connection 



with the drift fruits of Sacoglottis amazonica in Nature, January 31, 1889.) 

 Borgesen. See under Warming. 



